This discussion was subject to a deletion review on 2008 October 20. For an explanation of the process, see Wikipedia:Deletion review. |
The result was keep. While there may be reasons for the subject to request this deletion, there are reliable sources that establish his notability. An article needing to be cleaned up and/or monitored for IP edits is a reason to protect it and or/monitor it, not delete it. This AfD has been relisted and subject to some controversy but when it comes down to the end, there is no consensus here to delete. Numerically, keep outweighs delete, but both sides present their reasons, especially regarding notability and privacy. What this close comes down to is that BLP issues (which don't seem to be prsent) can be solved by vigilant monitoring and sourcing. There is no way to make him non-notable since consensus is that he meets the standards for notability. TravellingCari 02:01, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
For a year and a half now I have made a standing offer to nominate Wikipedia biographies of living persons for courtesy deletion upon two conditions: I receive a credible request directly from the subject, and the subject must not be notable enough to have a biography entry in any reliable encyclopedia, including specialty encyclopedias. The biographies of living persons noticeboard and reliable sources noticeboard have been unable to resolve the problems surrounding Mr. Ross's biography. It is my understanding that he has also contacted OTRS without improvement to the dilemma. Mr. Ross has given me permission to quote from his email request for courtesy deletion:
I would like my biography removed from the Wikipedia Web site. The entry about me in Wikipedia is used by cult [his term] members and others who wish to attack me.
Recent additions… is [sic] taken from unreliable sources…and contains false statements and/or misleading statements selectively quoted without any meaningful historical context for the purpose of character assassination. This…reflects poorly on Wikipedia and supports the growing criticism that the Web site is often biased…
Please see if you can have it removed.
So requesting (first choice) deletion, or (second choice) merge/redirect to deprogramming. For the record, I have no opinion about Mr. Ross himself, his beliefs, or his career. Having also been the nominator of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Seth Finkelstein (2nd), it is at least a remote possibility that Mr. Ross may someday agree with Mr. Finkelstein's thesis that Wikipedia is a cult and attempt to deprogram me. This sort of irony is the occasional byproduct of acting upon a consistent principle. And regarding off-wiki encyclopedias, this is a passing mention rather than a distinct biographical entry. DurovaCharge! 00:05, 19 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]